The Day He Returned
by ghost the cat 18
Summary: Elias notices his wife, Meg, is acting strange after an odd message form eggman is sent. meanwhile, in the dragon kingdom, Raiju ninja's are going missing. could these be related somehow? please read and review, this's my first story!
1. something strange

**Hi readers! Just want to say that all characters belong to Archie and saga. Ghost the cat is mine. Enjoy, This's my first story!**

_Elias acorn pov_

The warmth of the sun woke me up. I slowly opened my eyes. I smiled at the sight of a beautiful angel lying next to me in bed. Her green eyes were wide opened, and she had a bright, beautiful smile on her face. "Good morning." She said. I smiled a pulled her in for a kiss. "Good morning love-birds." Meg gave a slight scream at the sound of a third voice in our room. The two of us turned to see sonic the hedgehog standing in front of our bed. "Sonic! Don't you knock?" I asked angrily. The hedgehog smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. But the council wants you right away." I groaned. "Can't it wait?"

"Nope, you need to come now. We got a message from Eggman." That woke me up. I jumped out of bed and ran to get some clothes. "What kind of message?" I asked. The hedgehog shrugged. "I don't know, we haven't read it yet."

"What do you mean 'read'?" I asked, "What'd he do? E-mail us?" the hedgehog nodded, "yeah, actually, he did." I quickly told sonic to tell the council I was on my way. Once he was gone, I tuned back to Meg. "I'll be right back, okay?" I said giving her a kiss. "But get Alexis and get ready to go, just in case the message doesn't say something good." Meg nodded in understanding. I was about to leave when she grabbed my arm, "darling," she said, "remember, no matter how mad it is, we always make it through." I couldn't help but kiss her again; she always knew just what to say.

The council was meeting in the main control room. We all stared at the big screen nervously. "Open the e-mail." I commanded. The email was short.

_Hang on to your lasting love, the secret weapon has already been sent._

The whole room erupted in screams.

_Meanwhile in the dragon kingdom..._

_Ghost the cat pov_

I stood on top of a rock, drying to see over the tall bamboo. "Do you see him?" Tyra lynx, one of the raiju clan ninjas, asked. I shook my head and climbed down from the rock. "No, This's ware he said he'd meet us, right?" she nodded. "He scares me. I can't believe Eggman hired him." I said. Tyra laughed. "Are you kidding? He's _gorgeous._" I stared at her for a second, "your such a girl." I finally said. Tyra just rolled he eyes. "Where are the others?" she asked.

"They went up ahead to see if they could find him." I explained. We heard a rustling sound. We turned to see a few bamboo trees' shaking. "That might be him." Tyra said, getting up to check it out. She entered the bamboo forest, and didn't come out for a while. "Tyra?" I asked. I didn't get a response. I entered the forest; there was no sign of her. Valerie and Sandra returned. "We didn't see him... hey, where's Tyra?" Sandra asked.

"I don't know. There was something in there." I said, pointing at the bamboo forest, "she went to go check I out and just... disappeared." The three of us looked around for her, calling her name. About half an hour later, Sandra finally called the bride of conquering storm on. While she explained what happened over her walkie talkie, me and Valerie kept looking. "The bride says to try her walkie talkie." Sandra finally said. I began to pull out mine, when I heard Valerie call, "guys look at this!" we ran over to where she was. "Look at this!" she said, holding up a walkie talkie. We stared at it for a moment. "Yes, your walkie talkie is very pretty, but what has this got to do with tyra?" I asked.

Valerie shook her head. "It's not mine, it's Tyra's. I found it on the ground. We all looked at it. We looked at it for a good 5 minutes, "you know, I don't think staring at its going to help." I finally said.

_Castle acorn_

_Elias acorn pov_

I returned home, exhausted. "So what did it say?" Meg asked. I groaned at sat on the couch. "_Hang on to your lasting love, the secret weapon has already been sent." _I said. Meg almost dropped the bowl she was holding. "You okay?" I asked rushing up to her. She just nodded her head, "yeah... are you sure that's what it said? Exactly?" I nodded. She went pale. "Are you sure your okay?" I asked again. She nodded and the colour returned to her face. "Yeah, I'm fine." She said, wrapping her arms around me. I smiled. What was i worried about. If something was wrong, she'd tell me, right?

**What happened to Tyra? Is Meg **_**really **_**okay? Find out next time! Please review! **


	2. the traveler

**Next chapter! I forgot to mention in the last chapter that Tyra, Sandra and Valerie are just some characters I made up. Quick reminder, no other characters other than those three and Ghost the cat belong to me. **

_Megan acorn Pov_

I didn't get any sleep. I just lay there, staring at the ceiling. I was in shock and horror. He couldn't be back, could he? _Hang on to your lasting love... _those six words bounced around in my mind, the last six words he said to me. Soon I got lost in my thoughts and lost track of time. Before I knew it, the sun was shining through the window. Elias was soon up too. "Good morning..." he said. He looked at me with concern. "Are you okay? You look tired." I just nodded and sat up a bit. "I'm feeling a little sick." I said. I could feel myself drowning in guilt. He looked worried. Poor Elias! He had the right to know... but I just... _couldn't_.

_Elias acorn pov_

I felt her forehead, "you are warm..." I said. "Do you think you'll be okay? I can stay home if you want..."

"No! No it's okay..." she said quickly. I raised an eyebrow, and she adverted her eyes, knowing I had noticed her quickness to object me staying home. "... Okay then... I'll be back soon." I gave her a kiss; assured her I loved her, and left to get ready. But before I was out of our bedroom, I heard her say my name. I turned to see what it was she wanted. "Tell me more about that message you got... did he ever send his secret weapon?" I leaned against the door and went through what had happened in my head. "no." I finally said. "We looked at those screens for hours, but nothing came." She leaned back a bit, "well, that's strange. Most of his inventions come within the hour. Unless he sent his egg slug."

I smiled. If she could crack a joke at a time like this, she was fine.

About an hour later, I was standing in the main control room with the rest of the council looking at a few hundred computer screens. "We have nearly a thousand cameras posted around the boarder of new mobotropolis." Rotor explained. I nodded in understanding. "Look at that!" Rosemary Prower suddenly exclaimed, pointing at one of the screens. We all followed her finger. On one of the screens, we could see a few bushes rustling. We all held our breath and exhaled deeply when an brown squirrel came out. "Aw, it's just a traveler!" Hamlin said angrily.

I stared at the screen for a while. The man had dark brown hair, and blue eyes, one which was covered by an eye patch. I didn't like him for some reason. "He may only be a traveler, but I'm still going to send some guards to question him." I said. There was a knock at the door. I turned around to see my sister standing in the doorway. "Hi! I just wanted to see of you had anything for me to do." I thought about it for a second. "No, not right now I don't think..." she looked a little disappointed. "Oh, alright then..." she began to walk away when I remembered something, "oh, wait! There is actually something I need you to do." She turned back hopefully, "yes?"

"Could you go tell sonic that I need him to come see me? I have a mission for him." She raised an eyebrow, "anything _elts_?" I sighed, "And I want you to go on the mission with him." She smiled excitedly, "okay! Be right back!" I smiled as she quickly ran off.

_Sally acorn pov_

I had no idea where sonic could be I had tried his house, but his parents had said that he was at Bunnie and Antoine's. So when I went there, they said he had left. So now I was on a wild goose chase. I was walking through a more quiet part of town when I noticed a strange man. He was a brown squirrel with an eye patch; he was leaned against a park tree. I decided just to walk past him, but he seemed to have different plans. "And where is fine lady like you going on this equally fine evening?" he asked me. I couldn't help but blush, "oh, um, I'm just looking for my friend." He gave me a nod and looked around. "This is a lovely city, much more lovely than the little village I grew up in."

"So you're not from here?" I asked. He shook his head. "No, I actually just arrived today. I smiled politely. "Oh, I hope you didn't have any trouble getting in." He laughed. "No, not at all. A few big men asked me a few questions, but that's about it." "Yes, that sounds about right. You see, we've been having some... issues." I explained. "So what village was it you used to live in?" I asked. I took a step away from the tree and closer to me, causing me to step back. "Feral forest village." He said.

"Oh, you might know my sister in law then, she comes from there. Her names Megan." His expression remained the same, but something in his eyes changed. "Hmm... Megan you say? If she goes by the name Meg, I've heard of her." I just nodded my head. "Yes... um... I better go now..." I turned to leave. I heard him say behind me, "oh, princess, your blue friends is just about a quarter of a mile up ahead, buying an chilli dog." I stopped. How did he know I was the princess? And how did he know my friend (sonic) was blue? I turned around to ask him, but he was gone.

_Megan Acorn pov_

It has been _hours _since Elias had left. I almost wish I had asked him to stay. All I could do to keep my mind off of _him_, and I don't mean Elias when I say _him_. I had relied on Alexis to keep me busy, but right now she was taking a nap. So i decided draw a few pictures. They lay scattered in front of me on the coffee table. I stared at them for a while, not sure what to draw next. I was saved when I heard Alexis crying.

Five minutes later, I was sitting on the couch again, only this time with Alexis. I bounced her on my lap, making her smile. She was such a happy little baby... I suddenly felt a wave of anger. How could he have left me? Left her? But maybe it was a good thing he had, because now Alexis had a real father. "Elias is a better father than he would have ever been." I assured Alexis, even though I knew she couldn't understand me. "He loves and cares for you... more than you biological father ever would have."

And it was just then (perfect timing, considering what we were just talking about) that Elias walked through the door. "Hey, Meg. Sorry I took so long." he sat next to me on the couch. "Hey, what are these?" he asked, picking up my pictures I had drawn. He flipped through them. "These are amazing... did you draw these Meg?" I nodded shyly. "Yes..." he continued to flip through them. "Wow... Meg these are incredible! I had no idea you were such a good artist." I blushed, "well I'm not... I'm not that good..." he just shook his head in astonishment, "tomorrow, I'm getting a ton of frames for these." I giggled. He turned to Alexis. "Mommy's a really good artist, isn't she?" Alexis just stared at him while tugging on my hair. We both laughed.

_Meanwhile, in the dragon kingdom..._

_Conquering Storm pov_

Ghost wasn't worried, oh no, what did she have to worry about? I sometimes envied my adopted little sisters care free attitude. She went off and did whatever she wanted, while I would stay behind and worry. I'd worry about everything and anything. As long as it evolved harm to my clan, I would worry about it. And here she sat in front of me, singing. It wasn't like she was a bad singer, but it did get a little annoying at times. "Ghost, would you stop it?" I finally snapped. She shut her mouth, but that didn't stop her from humming.

"What are you so freaked out about?" she asked me, "its only one person. Normally if someone goes missing you'd be all like, 'it was their own stupidly that caused their disappearance. We can't have stupid ninja's. So when she returns... Banished!'" I rolled my eyes, "I sound nothing like that." Ghost stayed quiet for a second, and then said, "Maybe you should take a break. You've been working really hard the last few weeks..." I stood up from my seat, "I do not need a break! Right now, the only thing I need to do is take care of the clan!" Ghost also stood up, and smirked, "you know, you weren't this stressed out when _Lighting Lynx _was around..." I glared at her, "I told you not to talk about him." I said angrily.

Just then, Ron the lynx (who I had asked to keep track of how many ninja's went missing.) walked in with a noise maker and party hat. "100 people! 100 people!" he said. Ghost giggled, "Ron, what are you doing?" she asked. Ron stopped his noise maker and said, "Tyra marks the 100th person to go missing in the past 4 months..." Ghost eyes went wide, "_**100 **_people?" I nodded my head, "now you can see why I'm so freaked out." I quickly shooed Ron out of the room. Ghost turned to me, "you should really think of banishing him." She said. I raised an eyebrow at her, "why?" she crossed her arms and looked at me seriously, "for being a stupid ninja."

**Well readers, there you go! Another chapter, leaving us more questions. Who was that mysterious traveler? How is it possible for 100 people to go missing in 4 months? I guess the only thing you can do is keep reading! Please review!**

**Note: mysterious traveler (not going to get his name out of me yet!) and Ron the lynx belong to me.**


	3. a quick defeat

_Scourge the hedgehog pov_

The rest of the team were obviously wondering what we were doing on mobius prime. I could tell by the way they looked at me, and the way they whispered behind my back. Well I wasn't going to tell them, not yet anyway. The reason we were here was because this was where all the good stuff was. It seemed that all the chaos emeralds came here to mobius prime, and that all the best weapons were built here. And if I was going to take over, those would be a big help.

I looked around, it was getting dark. "Okay gang, well set up camp for the night." About 3 hours later, me and Fiona sat together by the fire we had set up. "Are you going to talk to him?" Fiona asked. I looked over to where she was sitting. "Talk to who?" She pointed to one of the tents we had set up. "Lightning!" Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. I shrugged, "I'll tell him in the morning..." Fiona was quick to correct me. "You mean you'll tell him _now_. We're heading over there tomorrow; you need to give him some time to prepare himself for it."

I groaned and stood up. "fine." I went over to the tent she had pointed at. I hesitated a bit, and then opened it. I peered inside, he was meditating. At the moment, he looked pretty relaxed. But I was still a little scared that if I disturbed him, he'd punch me in the face. But, of course, I'd never admit that to anyone. I sat down in front of him, "... hey, buddy." I said awkwardly. He opened his eyes. "Yeah?" I sat for a second, trying to think of how to say it. He raised an eyebrow and leaned back a bit, "are you going to sit there looking stupid or do you have something to say?"

I blinked and started talking, "well, do you remember how you were telling us about your clan?" he sat up a little more, "... yes?" he was going to freak when I told him, "well, you remember when you were telling us about the... weapon room... well, some of those could help us, so tomorrow were heading over there and going to try to..." I stopped talking. "Lightning?" he looked like he was in shock.

_Lightning Lynx pov_

I heard him say my name, but I couldn't answer. I couldn't go back; there was no way I could go back. The last time I had been there... I had kissed her. I had kissed Conquering Storm. Then I had left. She had been fine with it, but it didn't change the fact that I had abandoned her. I stood up in front of the green hedgehog. "no." I said, "You have no idea how dangerous that is." Scourge laughed and stood up as well, "Lightning, we escaped from _zone jail,_ this'll be nothing compared to that." I looked away from him for a second. That was a pretty lame excuse as to why we shouldn't go. And he would probably not listen to me any ways... "Fine," I said.

To be honest, after me and Storm had kissed; I had considered leaving the destructix. And I was actually going to. But I had thought that it would have been at a bad time. Now I wish I had. Scourge smiled. "You'll see, we'll be in and out of there." He started to leave the tent, "but Scourge," I said to him, he turned back to me, I continued, "if we do get caught, well face some major punishments... you better know what you're doing." He just gave me a nod, and left.

The idiot.

_Meanwhile in new mobotropolis _

_Sonic the hedgehog pov_

"And then he said my _**blue **_friend!" sally gasped, as if expecting me to do the same. When I didn't, she seemed to get a little annoyed. "Oh, come on! It's a little creepy don't you think?" I got up from the chair I had been sitting in. "look, sally, a lot of people know you, and they know you're a princess. A lot of people know who I am, and they know I'm blue. It's not that odd..." "But-" "no buts, he was probably just trying to act mysterious to get your attention." She nodded, but didn't seem too convinced.

I put my hand on her shoulder, "don't think about it too much. Besides, we have other things to worry about. Didn't you say Elias had a mission for us?" she seemed to brighten up at that. "Yeah! He did! We should hurry then, don't want to keep him waiting." And with that I scooped her up, and off we went. But i could tell that, she was still a bit unsure.

_Scourge the hedgehog pov_

I hadn't been prepared for such a rocky hike, I had thought, from what Fiona had described to me, that the dragon kingdom was all flat. It was even harder trying to get here with the rest of the team being annoying. Lightning would keep trying to convince me to change my mind, and when I didn't, he gave would give me the death glare for a good ten minutes before trying again. Flying frog insisted that we song a traveling song, and when everyone voted against it, he sung by himself. Nice and loud... predator would keep complaining about having to walk. If he flew, someone would probably see him, and we were trying to stay low. Fiona and simian weren't too bad, but were pretty chatty.

I sighed with relief when we finally made it. Lightning looked pretty mad, "well, we're hear scourge, now what?" he asked. I was about to answer when we heard a sound from up ahead. We peered over the rock to see what was going on. Two ninja lynx, one female, on male, were kicking around a poor old looking tortoise. "That's Valerie and Ron." Lightning said quietly.

"What's the matter old timer? Can't defend yourself?" Valerie asked mockingly, snatching away the man's cane. The man stumbled and fell, making the two of them laugh. I was trying to not laugh myself. "Why you out here anyways? Shouldn't you be hiding behind the 'king of the free people'?" Ron said, kicking the tortoises shell. And then much to my complete horror, I heard flying frog, laughing,_**loud**_. The two of them turned to where we were hiding. Ron pushed the old man to the side.

"What do we got here?" Valerie asked viscously. We all stood. I got ready for my speech. "Hey there. Were just here to take you down and, y'know, take over you're..." but before I could continue, she kicked me in the face. "This is a fight; you don't have to be so dramatic about it." She said as the rest of my team scurried over to help me up. Ron looked over to lightning. "Lightning, you better get out of here. If Conquering Storm catches you, you're a goner." I noticed he didn't say it with sarcasm in his voice. And by the look of worry on his face, I could tell he was an old friend of Lightning's. "I'm not too worried about her." Was all lightning said.

I turned to get ready for the fight to continue. I could see Valerie pulling something out of her bag. I recognized it right away as sleeping gas. "Quick, get that away from her!" I ordered. But it was too late.

**Dun, dun, duh! The destructix have now entered the story, and went down quite pathetically. And now lightning has to face his old crush! If any of you want to learn more about that kiss lightning was talking about, read my story "Broken" for all the details. Please review! **


	4. a letter

**Greeting readers! Here is chapter the next chapter! I hope you like it! **

_Megan acorn pov_

I could hear a sound. But what could it be? It was the middle of the night... I think. "Elias... goes to sleep..." I said groggily. I sat up and looked at the clock. 4 in the morning. I looked over next to me in the bed where Elias _should _have been. There was a note.

_Meg,_

_Got an emergency call, had 2 go 2 work._

_Love U!_

_-Elias_

I groaned. Then I heard the sound again. I had completely forgotten about that. I looked around the room. Nothing was there. I shrugged and went back to sleep. "Hello, Meg." I sat up. I screamed. It was him! "You? What are you doing here?" he took a step closer to me. "You'll find out..."

_Meanwhile in the dragon kingdom_

_Scourge the hedgehog pov_

"Scourge wake up." I could hear Fiona's voice, calling to me. I slowly opened my eyes. Then I screamed. Fiona's face was right up to mine, the first thing I had seen were her blue eyes. "Fiona! Don't scare me like that!" I looked around. We seemed to be in a cave almost. It was damp and completely made of stone, and very, very dark. But then I saw bars blocking our way out, and realized this was where they keep prisoners.

I looked over to lightning, and sighed in relief. He was still asleep. I was honestly somewhat thankful for that. He was going to be so mad when he woke up, and probably punch me in the face and say 'I told you so'. It looked like me and Fiona was the only ones up. "Where are we?" I asked. "The mountains it seems." Just then, we heard footsteps. Fiona slid back a bit, pressing herself to the wall. I was trying to contain myself from doing the same.

Then, in front of us, on the others side of the bars keeping us from freedom, stood a young girl, about 13 or 14. And the two ninja's that we had run into. The girl ordered the two to open the entrance and let her in. Once the ninja's closed our exit behind her, she sat in front of me. "So you're the idiot that attempted to enter raiju land." I stared at her for a second; it was hard to take her seriously. "You're not a lynx." I finally said, "What are you doing here?" she smiled sweetly. "I'm the bride of conquering storms younger sister." Then she corrected herself, "younger adopted sister."

I laughed nervously, "Yeah that makes more sense." She didn't respond right away, then she said, "you want to get out of here, right?" I nodded. She stood up, "our ninja's have been going missing." She explained. I raised an eyebrow. "That's... nice..." then when I saw the look on her face, i quickly corrected myself, "I mean bad! Very, very bad!" I then continued, "So what does this have to do with us getting out?" she looked over to Fiona, I don't know why, because Fiona had nothing to do with the next thing she said. "If you help us find then, you're free to go." I, stood up, just so didn't have to look up to her, and gave her a look. Something didn't seem right about this. "Okay... if we agree to this, how do we know where to start?" she pulled a piece of paper out from her pocket. "We found this the last time someone went missing." She explained. "It leaves clues on how to find them." She said.

She looked at Fiona again, then spook to me, "I can tell you don't trust us." She said. "When you're all awake, you guys can talk about this. I'll talk to my sister about it when she returns from the trip she had to go on. So we'll be back in about... 4 days." My mouth hung open, "4 days! We can't wait for days!" I yelled. She then suddenly pulled out the scariest looking dagger I have ever seen. "They say it's the good that die young." She said. Taking a step towards me, she raised the blade towards me, "but I can easily prove then wrong." I looked into her eyes and gasped. I saw the devil; I could see darkness and hate. She seemed to turn into a little demon. But it was weird, because, at the same time, she didn't change at all.

I took a step back. "4-4 days? Sounds g-g-good." I stammered. She lowered the dagger, and just like that, she was a sweet little girl again. "'kay! See you then!" she said, skipping off to the exit. She stopped for a second, 'by the way, my name is Ghost." She said. I shivered; the name seemed to fit insanely. Once she was gone, I collapsed on the ground. Fiona walked up t me, "sorry to say this babe, but you acted like a real wimp." I glared at her. Had she not seen the change? I looked at her hard, and then realized she hadn't. Now that I think about it, neither had those two ninjas. "... You could've taken her you know, and then we would have been out of here by now." Fiona continued. I shook my head in disagreement. "What do you mean?" Fiona asked. But I didn't answer. There was something strange about that girl.

_In new mobotropolis _

_Elias acorn pov_

I returned home at around midnight. When i got to the door to our part of the castle, it was opened a crack. I stared at it for a while, and then shrugged. Maybe Meg had just opened it to let in some air. I walked in. "Meg! I'm home!" I called. But there was no sign of her. All the lights were on, but she was nowhere to be seen. 'Meg?" I could hear Alexis crying. I walked into the baby's room and picked Alexis up. Where was Meg? Why hadn't she come for Alexis? I looked in our room, the bed still wasn't made. I searched the whole house, but she wasn't there. Where could she be at this hour?

I searched the house again. It was the second search that I found a note on our bed. I read it, and then I read it again, and again and again. This couldn't be real. There was no way... it wasn't possible...

Meg had been kidnapped.

**Duh, duh duh! How was that? Who was that mysterious traveler and how does he know Meg? Why did he kidnap her? Is scourge going to help the raiju clan? And how is Lightning going to react when he sees his old love, Conquering Storm, again? Find out next time! And, please review! Please, please, please, please, please, please, please!**


	5. making plans

**Hello every one! Chapter five is finally here! I've got to be honest, I had some trouble trying to think up this one, but here it is!**

_Elias acorn pov_

It was dead quiet, but at the same time loud. It was like the silence was _screaming _at me. But I couldn't do anything about it. I was frozen. All I could do was stare at the note in utter shock. She couldn't be gone, she just couldn't. Who would have done this? Who could have anything against her? There was no reason to; she had never done anything wrong in her life. She was an angle, an innocent angle that didn't disserve this. I finally sat down on the bed, Alexis still in my arms. She was clueless; she had no idea her mother was missing. I held her closer to me, protectively. She didn't disserve this either.

I then thought of Meg's dad, Joss. He didn't disserve this either. From what Meg had told me, her mother had died when she was about 9. He'd be heartbroken to hear that his daughter was missing. Who would that leave him with? And what about sally? I remember when she first met Meg... she had been so happy to have a sister-in-law. And they got along so well people could easily mistake them for sisters. I felt anger replace the fear and misery. _I _didn't disserve this. My beautiful Meg was gone. She was my whole world. I loved her more than anything (besides Alexis) and would never want any harm to come to her.

I had to save her, there was no question. It even said it on the note. It gave information on where she was. They wanted me to come to her... that was when I realized it. This was for me. This was a trap. They knew I would come to save her. I stood up, I was going to anyways. But I would need help...

It was about an hour and a half later, I had all the council members gathered together at our usual place, with sonic and sally joining us. "Meg is missing?" Hamlin asked in disbelief. Rosemary sighed, "Yes, for the third time Hamlin, she was kidnapped." It hurt worse each time it was said out loud. "Yes, and we have to find her." I said again for the third time. All council members shared a glance, and then turned to me. "Elias, we know you're worried about her." Rosemary said gently, "but it is a trap, you said so yourself."

I turned to rosemary, "but she's a part of the royal family, we should be saving her anyways." Hamlin was quick to correct me, "actually, she isn't technically royalty. True, she married you, but she has no royal blood." I glared at him. I opened my mouth to say something, but sally began to speak instead. "This is ridicules!" she said, standing up from her seat, "if it was dad or mom, we'd be doing everything we could to save them. If it was Elias, we'd be doing everything we could to save him, even if it was me, you wouldn't stop looking! But why not Meg?"

"Why don't we wait a bit, and see if we can figure out who the criminal is?" Penelope suggested. I groaned, "It'll be too late then! We have to go _now_!" "I agree with Elias," rotor said, "besides, sonic could go with him, he'd be safe then."

"or we could just have sonic go alone." Sonics' uncle chuck said. Sonic shook his head, "no, I wouldn't be able to. I don't understand the note, it's all in riddles." Every one turned to sally hopefully. "Don't look at me!" she said, "I don't get it either. But Elias seems to understand it." I nodded my head, "yes, it does make sense to me." Rosemary clapped her hands approvingly, "perfect! You can tell sonic where to go and he'll be off!" I shook my head, "I could do that, but I won't. I need to be there when we find her; I need to go for myself." Everyone was silent for a second. Then Hamlin said, "Why don't we take the final vote? All in favour of Elias staying here?" I felt a wave of disappointment hit me, when the only one not to raise their hand was rotor.

"I can't believe this." I muttered under my breath. I stood up, and swiftly headed for the door, "sonic, sally, come with me!" They quickly followed behind me. "Elias, where are we going?" sally asked, once we were in the hall. "To go see dad." I said, "He'll know what to do..."

_Sally acorn pov_

Elias was mad, I could tell. But I couldn't blame him. It was unfair. Just because Meg had no royal blood didn't mean she was anything less than an equal to us. It bothered me more that people though that because we were royalty it made us anything more than an equal. I personally wanted to know who would do this. Who could possibly hate Elias so much that they kidnap his wife? This whole thing made _me _mad. It was truthfully unfair.

Elias swung opened the doors to our parents room (with out knocking) and walked in. Mother looked happy to see us, "Elias! Sally! What bring you two..."

"Meg was kidnapped." Elias interrupted. Mother rand father gasped. "What? What do you mean?" father asked. Elias continued. "When I came home, she was gone. This note was left behind." He handed then the note. They read it quietly, I could see a few tears in mother's eyes, "oh, no... Not meg." She said quietly. Elias was quick to continue his story, "the council won't let me go save her. They told me it would be best if I stay here. But I..."

"They're right." Everyone turned to father. "What?" mother put a hand on his shoulder. "What do you mean, Max?" Father stared directly at Elias and said, "It is the duty of the king to stay with his people, and protect them at all cost. You can't just run off for one girl. Anything could happen when you are away."

Elias looked like he was ready to argue, but mother was quick to stop him. "Max, can I talk to you outside in the hall for a minute?" she wheeled father off to the hall, and shut the door behind her. I turned to alias. He looked let down. "I already know what he's going to say." He said, sitting down in a nearby chair. "I shouldn't have even bothered asking, I should've just gone to her."

I sat down next to him, "and I completely support that. And I'll be with you all the way." sonic walked over to us, "yeah, I'm coming too." "I'll even get the rest of the freedom fighters to come." I said. "We can ditch that old mission you had for us, this one's far more important." He seemed to cheer up a bit. "Thanks, guys." But then a thought seemed to have accrued to him, "but who will take care of Alexis?"

"I'm sure vanilla will be please to do it." It was just then that mother and father entered again. "I still stand by my word." Father said. "You're staying." Elias stood up, "no, father, I'm not." Father looked a little insulted, "you dare say no?" I stood up too, sonic said, "yes, he does 'dare' say no." And without another word, the three of us left. "I won't let this happen!" father yelled after us. Mother ran up to the door, "don't worry about him." She said, opening it, "just go. He'll be fine with if after a while." Elias smiled. "Thank you mother." He gave her a hug and walked out the door. A looked back to my angry father. "We'll be back soon." I promised him.

_Meanwhile in the dragon kingdom_

_Fiona Fox pov_

3 more days... 3 more stinking days. I honestly couldn't believe it. How could scourge let this happen? He totally could've taken that chick on! But he completely chickened out. At this point in time, all of us where awake. Me and scourge had filled them all in on what had happened. They took it better than I expected. Especially Lightning, I had expected him to completely freak out, but he didn't. He was probably screaming on the inside though.

"Hey, you guys still alive?" I looked up, Ghost was back. "There's been a change of plans." She stepped into the little light that we had, and I finally got a good look at her. She was a light brown cat. She had short blonde hair, and green eyes. She wore black skinny jeans, and dark purple top with a belt of chains, and a purple hoodie, and purple converse sneakers.

Then I saw something that I knew for sure she didn't have the last time she was here. She had a robot arm. It was her right arm. "What happened to your arm?" I asked. She held it up for us all to see, "oh, this? Let's just say, a lot can happen within 24 hours." Scourge stared at the arm, "yeah, not _that _much." She suddenly looked a little sad, "you have no idea." She said. She then turned to Lightning, "all I can say, Lightning, is that you're lucky my sister exiled you when she did, or you'd be like this too. Almost the whole clan is."

He stared at her in disbelief, "what?" she pretended not to hear him. "As I was saying, there's been a change of plans. Were meeting up with my sister tomorrow on the outskirts of the Yagyu clan. We leave first thing in the morning." She turned to leave. Lightning scrambled after her, "no, wait! What happened to the clan?" but she didn't answer. She just left.

I went over to Lightning and sat next to him. "Lightning, it's no mystery, they were legonized. They must have joined Eggman." Lightning just shook his head, "no, they couldn't have, Storm would never let that happen." I just shrugged, "well, I guess she did, oh, well. Besides, you can ask her tomorrow." This didn't seem to cheer him up.

**How was that? Getting excited? I know I am! So get ready for chapter six! **


	6. taking action

**Yo what's up? I'll tell you what's up, Chapter 6! **

_Scourge the hedgehog pov_

"Wake up!" I groaned, she was back. There was no way for me to know what time it was, but I knew it was early. Mostly because of how cold it was, and how dark it was (darker than it usually was in this stupid cave of gloominess.) and because I didn't want to wake up. When I didn't respond, she kneeled down next to m head, and screamed into my ear, "WAKE UP!" I sat up quickly, "I'm up, I'm up!" I looked up at her, she was warring something different than she was yesterday. She wore a purple, short, sleeveless light purple dress. With a silver belt and silver leggings. And light purple flats.

I then around, "where are the others?" she glared at me, with her huge, evil eyes. "They're already out front, waiting for you." I yawned, "What time is it?"

"Around 5, can we go now?" she said impatiently. I pretended not to notice. "So they've been up since 4?"

"Yes! Waiting for _you_!"

"Okay! I get it, they were waiting for me! But why are we up so early?"

She looked at me like I was an idiot, "I said **'first thing in the morning '**."

I sighed, there was no winning with her, she always had something rude to say. But, yet again, so did I. She turned to the exit out of this dump, "come on, we've kept them waiting long enough." I stood up and followed her. I knew she was the reason I was getting out if here, but I couldn't help but glare at her. The little brat.

_Ghost the cat pov_

It had only been a 3 hour walk, but I felt like I'd been walking for days. I had never been big on exercise, so walking had been the last thing I had wanted to do. But we had finally come to the spot Storm had told me she'd be. "Are you sure this's the place?" Fiona asked, eyeing the cave in the side of the mountain we were standing by. I nodded, "this is where she said she'd be." I shivered. That was exactly the conversation me and Tyra had had before she had gone missing.

Something was defiantly wrong; they were nowhere to be seen.

"Let's keep moving." I said quickly, wanting to be out of here as fast as possible. Unfortunately, I didn't end up getting what I wanted. Half an hour later, we were still waiting. Lightning Lynx and Flying Frog had gone into the cave to see if Storm and the ninja's she had been with where in there, and still hadn't come out yet. I soft wind blew that chilled me to the bones. It seemed to whisper, it seemed to sing. I couldn't help but feel a little freaked out; this was way too similar to what had happened to Tyra. The wind was now singing louder, a million lost souls singing in my ear, wanting me to join their song. I couldn't help but sing along with them, quietly.

"_Oh, listen to the wind_

_It has a story to be told_

_It's a gift to be held_

_With great pride_

_It blows away deadly sins_

_Leaves behind a sense of hope_

_Sent down from heaven to _

_Give us words of advice_

_Maybe if you listen_

_You will make it to heaven_

_With opened arms..."_

"You're really good." I looked up, startled. It had been Fiona. "What?" she repeated herself, "You're really good." I blushed a bit, "thanks." I said, feeling rather shy. "But there's better, trust me. Some of the girls at my school sing amazingly." I could see Scourge glaring at us. I smirked, "what's wrong Scourgey?" he didn't answer.

"You guys! We found them!" I looked over to Lightning, who was standing at the mouth of the cave. I got up and quickly ran over to him, "you did? Are they okay?" he hesitated before answering, "their... their okay... but your sister is..." I could feel my eyes widen. "Oh no, she isn't..." Lightning looked surprised, "oh? Oh! No, she's alive. But she's... well come and see for yourself." We all followed him. It was about a five minute walk. I hadn't realized how big the cave had been until we entered it.

I finally saw them, huddled over something, no, someone. As I got closer, I saw that it was my sister.

_Fiona fox pov_

Ghost ran up to her, and kneeled next to her. She turned to a female lynx with short brownish blonde hair pulled into a ponytail. "What's wrong with her, Lexi?" she asked. I could tell she was trying very hard not to cry. The female lynx, Lexi, turned her gaze to a laptop sitting in her lap. "I think she was shut down." She said. "Shut down?" I repeated. Lexi nodded. "Yeah, I know you can't tell, but she's been legionized too. When Eggman legonized his... well the people he's legionizing, he makes sure it's all connected to the brain. That way we can control the parts of us he legionized. Someone must have turned off the parts of her that were legionized, which is connected to the brain, which shut her down all together."

"Wait, slow down, how would someone shut them down?" Scourge asked, surprising me. I never thought he'd be interested in all of this technical talk. "At Eggman's main base, where ever that may be at the time, he has a room where he keeps track on all the legionnaires. He can shut them down too, but I don't think it was him that did this." Lexi explained. She looked down at her laptop again. "I'm on the egg network right now; it's blowing up with legionnaires! They're all saying their grand masters have been shut down."

Another female lynx, the one that had had the sleeping gas, looked up in surprise. "All the grandmasters have been shut down? Why? This is, like, going to go down in egg history as one of the worst days for the Eggman Empire." Ghost seemed to notice something, she turned to the lynx, "hey, Valerie, wasn't Ron with you?" another female lynx burst out into tears. One of the males patted her on the back. Valerie turned to her, "Sandra, please don't start crying again." She turned back to Ghost.

"He's the reason we ended up in this cave. When we first decided to meet you here, we had no intentions of going in the cave. But Ron claimed he'd seen someone go in, and offered to go check it out. So he did, then he screamed like a little girl, and Conquering Storm wanted to go in and see if he had possibly been taken by out mystery kidnapper. He had, but when we came in to check it out, she shut down." Lexi suddenly screeched with excitement, "omigod! Some of the legionnaires are saying there grandmasters are coming back online! That means Conquering Storm should be back any second!"

And as if on cue, Storm started to stir, she opened her eyes and... I tried not to scream. She opened her _robot_ eyes, and looked around for a bit. "What happened?" she asked quietly. Eggman's face suddenly appeared on Lexi's computer screen. "Attention all legionnaires. At this point in time, all your grandmasters should be back. I apologize greatly, but someone had been messing with my controls. Your grandmasters are very week, and need to get to the closest doctor as soon as possible to be put under surveillance for a limited time, to make sure they're all right." His face disappeared.

_Lightning lynx pov_

I sighed. Why did it have to be her eyes? She had had such pretty eyes! But it didn't matter, she was still beautiful, no one could deny it. Ghost was quick to take charge, "okay, we need to get her back to the raiju clan. Lightning, why don't you take her?" I looked at her surprised, "what?" she gave me her 'are you stupid or something?' look we where are growing familiar with and siad, "you know, carry her? Just to the clan." I didn't know why they didn't just get simian to do it, but didn't object. I quickly scooped her up in my arms. "Lightning? Is that you?" I could hear her whisper in my ear. I smiled and turned my head to look at her, her eyes were closed, "yeah, it's me." She opened her eyes slowly and smiled. She wrapped her arms around my neck and rested her head on my shoulder. "I'm glad you're here." she said, closing her eyes again.

I looked around, everyone was to busy grabbing all their things to notice us. "I'm glad you're okay." I said, kissing the top of her head. I looked around again. No one had seen that.

_Meanwhile, in new mobotropolis_

_Elias acorn pov_

I looked over to my sister and smiled. "Thank you for doing this." I said. She smiled, "hey now, don't forget, she's my sister in law." I laughed a bit. We were standing at the castle gates, getting ready to leave. I was very pleased with how many people had come to help me. There were the freedom fighters and the chaotix, and even a few other people. Mina had insisted on joining us, Nicole was coming in her hand held form, and Rotor was coming as well. And of course, Sonic and Sally. I looked out into the distant sunset, "alright every one lets head out!"

**So how was that? Pretty good, eh? Don't forget to review, and please vote on my poll. Thank you and goodnight!**


	7. information and questions

**Wow, chapter 7 is here already! **

_Megan acorn pov_

So bright... I was woken by the brightest light. At first a thought it was an angle, or God. Did I die? Did he finally decide to kill me? I slowly sat up and looked around. I was in a room of complete white. The walls where white, the floor was white, the bed I was on was white, even the small table and chair in the corner was white. I looked down; someone had put me into a white outfit. The only colour in this room was the little tray of fruits on the table. One of the walls was completely clear, so I could see into the hall, which was also (surprise, surprise) white. A sudden scream broke the angry silence. Then another. Then a child crying and screaming. I thought of Alexis, and covered my ears. Images of what could be happening to those poor people flashed through my head. I shut my eyes, and screamed. Anything to drown out the noise.

This was defiantly not heaven, if anything, it was hell. "Ah, meg, I haven't seen you in a while, my angel." That voice. I opened my eyes, it was him. I had no idea how he got in here. He smiled at me. "How are you my dear?" I glared at him, "I'm not your 'dear' any more, I'm someone else's 'dear'." He smirked, "of course you are. So how are you enjoying your stay? You poor dear, you must be so confused." Indeed I was, a million questions swarmed through my mind. One like, 'what are you doing to those people?' or 'why did you bring me here?' and 'what are you going to do to me?' but instead, all I could say was, "why?" he smiled, and said, "I have a very good reason. A reason you wouldn't understand. But something you will want to understand, and will soon. You will most defiantly want to me apart of it."

I stood up quickly, and then felt dizzy from standing so fast. Everything was spinning, and angry tears blurred my vision. "**WHY?" **I screamed. "I saw you die! How could you be here?" he laughed again. "Don't be angry, love, it will all make sense soon." I have never felt this anger before, it was slowly taking over. "I'm not your 'love'! I don't love you anymore! And I want it to make sense now!" I ran up to him, and swung my arm at him. He grabbed it, and pulled me in. He leaned his head down towards mine, "but you can't." He then kissed me. I quickly broke his grip on me, and pulled my lips away. "The only one who can kiss me is Elias." I said. He grinned, "That weak, cowardly, king? Really now?"

"Don't you speak about him that way." I hissed at him. "He's braver than you'll ever be. _You're _the coward." For the first time through this whole meeting, he didn't smile, or laugh mockingly, but glared. He turned to leave. He pressed his hand to the glass wall, and a rectangle of the glass slid open, the size of a door. Before he could leave, I shouted to him, "he Julius." He turned to me, "yes Megan?" I smirked, "the eye patch is new." He sighed, "I got into... I got into a bit of trouble... a little while after I...left." I turned to face the opposite wall, to hide my satisfied smile. "I hope it hurt. I hope it hurt allot." I could hear him walk away, and the glass door slide back into place.

_Meanwhile, in the dragon kingdom_

_Conquering Storm pov_

All I could do was lay here in bed, shivering. I was so cold, but I was too weak to get up and opened the curtains. I felt so hopeless. This silence, this lack of things to do let my mind wonder. Wonder to places I didn't feel like going right now, or bring up stuff I didn't want to have to think about. Mostly the confusing situation that me and Lightning Lynx had gotten ourselves into. It was forbidden for a Bride to fall in love with an exile. But I had, and there was nothing I could do about it. We had our moments, when no one was around. We got rare chances to be together. But here, everyone was watching, and we were always being watched. I honestly didn't know what to do. I needed to talk to him at least. Since he returned to me, we've been like strangers around each other. It killed me, it truly did.

Love was deadly, that's why I tried to avoid it. But with him I couldn't help it. He actually cared about me. He listened to my problems, and he protected me. Oh, Lightning! Why do you have to be so darn cute? Then, at some crazy coincidence, he walked in. "you're up, finally. Are you okay?" I sighed, "eh, so-so. Is the clan okay?" he sat at the end of the bed, and smiled, "their fine, their more worried about you than anything, though." I smiled, of course they did. They were constantly worried about me. They honestly didn't need to be, but they were. It truly warmed my heart, it did. And the only way I could possibly repay them for their loyalty was to make sure we where the strongest of all the clans.

I looked him strait in the eyes. I saw he was worried, too. I could tell. For a second, I forgot about everything. Everything was all right. There was nothing wrong in my world or his. Or anyone's for that matter. It was perfect, all just so, so perfect. This was how it was supposed to be, I just knew it. But why couldn't it stay like this? Why couldn't we be together? It was just so unfair! Why must there be so many stupid, useless rules? I leaned forward, and grabbed his hand. "I can't pretend to be a stranger to you lightning, not anymore." He looked a little confused. "What?" I closed my eyes for a second and promised myself if wouldn't cry. I opened my eyes and said,

"It takes one kiss to change a person." I said, "That's what I have learned. Lightning, you must understand, I never meant to be cruel, or to even exile you in the first place. But being a bride... being a bride is hard. There's so many rules a need to follow, and so many people I need to take care of. I was lost, lost in a deep dark hole and couldn't get out. Then you came along, and you... and you _kissed _me. You woke me up and saved me. So ... thank you." Then, within that second, promises where broken. I started to cry. He wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me in for a hug. "Lightning Lynx, I love you." I said quietly. He looked like he was about to cry soon, too. "I love you too storm, more than anything in the world." He leaned down and kissed me.

Then I heard footsteps. I could tell he had heard it too, because he quickly pulled away, and stood up. I wiped away the tears and lay back down. I felt a bit of anger. How could anyone ruin a perfect moment like this? But I had to remember, it wasn't their fault. Whoever they were. Sandra lynx entered. Of course it was her. Who else would it be? "She's up!" she said excitedly. She bowed her head in respect and said, "Dear bride, I hope everything is meeting your expectations." I attempted a smile, "well enough I guess. But you could open a curtain, it's far too dark in here." she quickly rushed over to the window, and threw the curtains back. Golden sunlight spilled in through the window, bringing warmth. I sighed, how I loved the warmth. I looked over to lightning, and smiled. I hope Sandra hadn't been able to hear us. Then we would really be doomed.

He seemed to be thinking the same thing, because he looked over to Sandra, and said, "So, Sandy, what's new." She smiled, "not much, the usual, why do you ask?" me and him shared a glance, "no reason." He said. Sandra looked a little suspicious, but didn't say anything.

_Ghost the cat pov_

Me and Fiona sat at a picnic table in the park, waiting for lightning to come back with news about Storm. Predator was perched in a tree, sleeping. Simian and Flying Frog where talking to two little Lynx girls, who were offering them flowers. I couldn't help but laugh, it was pretty darn cute. Meanwhile, Scourge was nowhere to be seen. "I'll talk to Storm about the deal we made." I said. Fiona just nodded. She was looking around, looking for Scourge clearly. "Where is that boyfriend of yours?" I asked. She just shook her head, "I don't know, he kinda disappeared." I looked at her for a long time, trying to figure her out. "why are you with him?" I finally asked. She looked at me funny, "what do you mean?" she asked.

I laughed, "You know what I mean. Why do you hang out with him?" Fiona hugged herself, and for a second, she looked like a lovesick duck. "Because I love him" she said dreamily. I sighed. "Uh-huh." I honestly couldn't see him loving her. She risks her life for him; she will do whatever he needs her to do without question. And all he does for her is making her an outlaw. Yup, mmm-hmm, sure, what girl needs roses, or a neclas, or a box of chocolates from their boyfriend? Making your girlfriend wanted is the best gift by far. Yeah... totally shows how much you appreciate all the hard work she does for you, Scourge. You sure _are__** great. **_

Just then Scourge came strolling up to us. "Hey babes." He said. _Babes? _As in me too? You'd really say that in front of your girlfriend? But Fiona didn't seem to notice, or care. "Where have you been?" i demanded. "I just went for a run." He said. I glared at him for a good long time. And I made sure to give him the crazy eyes too. See, I have this face that could creep anyone out. Made a kid cry one time. I just had to shoot them my crazy face, and they freak. He turned to me, and screamed when he saw the look on my face. "Just stop that okay? Stop that... stop that..." but I didn't. He tried to look away, but as usual, couldn't. Finally he yelled at the top of his lungs, "STOP IT YOUR SCARING ME!"

Everyone turned to him, and burst out laughing, even Fiona. I dropped the crazy face and started to laugh too. He quickly tried to cover up, "I-I mean... if I got scared... I would be..." when no one stopped laughing, he stormed off. I watched him go with a satisfied smile. He was mad, that was for sure. And another victory for me. It never failed, _never_. Not that face anyways, as far as I knew. I sighed in triumph and turned to Fiona, "he's gonna hate me now, isn't he?" she didn't answer, she was laughing too hard.

**So, his name is Julius. But who is Julius exactly? I guess you're just going to have to wait! Don't forget to review and vote on my poll!**


	8. magic

**Introducing... (drum roll) chapter 8! **

_Elias Acorn pov_

All I could do was try and focus on trying to breath through my mouth. It smelt of rotten fish and old eggs in this town. Lucky for me, I hadn't had time for a breakfast, so I didn't have to worry too much about throwing up. This place was a dump. There wasn't a building that didn't have walls that where falling apart. The paint on the park benches had peeled so much I wasn't even sure what colour they had been. And the park itself was horrifying. The trees where all dead, the grass was yellow and brown, and the flowers were wilted. I was surprised father hadn't done anything to support it. Maybe I could try and clean it up, after I save Meg of course.

After about 4 hours of walking, we had discovered from one of the numerous maps Sally had brought that the trail broke up and meeted again. That way, we didn't draw as much unwanted atention. The group had decided to split up and meet when the trails came back together. My group had ended up in this town. Alder town, I think it was called. Well according to the sign a few miles back that had said 'welcome t o alder town!' although, the D had been missing... and the T... so for as far as I know, this place could be called 'Aler own'. I turned to face my group, consisting of the freedom fighters, and Mina.

"I have to be honest." I said, "I don't know where to go after this."

"Look at the note you got." Sally suggested. Oh, yeah, I had forgotten about that. I guess that was kind of important... just a bit.

I looked at it for a while, trying to sort out all the symbols and numbers. After a second, I got it. "We have to head into the forest after words. "Everyone stared at me for a while, "and?" Sonic pressed on.

"I don't know, I'll read the rest when we get there."

We walked for about half an hour, but the scenery stayed the same. Pretty big town, I guess, because as far as the eye can see, was no end to this town. By now, the rest of the team was starting to look a little sick themselves.

"This place stinks." Mina complained. "No wonder no one lives here." it was odd, that we hadn't run into any people yet, I guess no one did live here.

"Hey, you guys remember when the iron dominion took over?" I heard Sonic say. Beside me, Mina tensed up a bit. I turned around to face them "What makes you think about that, Sonic?" Tails asked. Sonic shrugged. "Nothing really, but remember when we ran into the destructix? That was pretty weird." Sally nodded in agreement, "yeah it was pretty random. I didn't expect to see them there."

"Yeah, and remember when we totally beat up those lynx-ninja guys?" Sonic continued. Sally nodded, "you mean the raiju clan? Yes, I do remember."

"You remember when I kicked Lightning's butt?" Sonic asked, "But you can't blame him for having a crush on that bride. You have to admit, she was pretty hot!" Sally glared at Sonic. "You weren't even paying attention to what had been important. You had been to busy checking out all the girls!"

Sonic laughed, "what are you talking about, Sally? You were too busy making googily eyes at money boy to even notice what I was doing!" sally didn't respond.

Then I heard voices, I turned around to see three people a little ways away from us. One was a female black cat with long black hair with purple streaks in it. She wore a black top and a small purple vest, black pants with a purple belt, and heavy black boots. The other was a male brown bear. He wore dirty looking jeans, covered with dust and mud, and a black vest. The youngest looking one was a nervous looking male squirrel. He wore a simple red top and red boots. He also wore a neclas, with a strange looking red gem. The female walked up to us. "Why hello there handsome. May I ask what a guy like you is doing out here?"

I then realized she had been addressing me. "Oh, no, um... I'm sorry but I'm- I'm married." Can you blame me for being nervous? She laughed. It was a beautiful laugh, but for some reason, it scared me. "Oh, I know that. I've seen her. You have a beautiful wife; I can never compete with her."

"You know Meg?" I asked, surprised. I know it was somewhat rude, but I just couldn't imagine Meg hanging out with _them_. They honestly looked like they had just robbed a bank. And I'm guessing they have. She laughed again. "Yes, I just met her... about an hour ago."

"You know where she is? Can you tell us where it was you saw her? She's been missing for a while now" sally said. The cat smirked, "I know she's missing."

"You know where she is." Sonic said. Then I realized it, "you helped kidnap her!" the cat laughed, only this time, it was more like a shriek. The others joined her in her laughter. Purple flames suddenly appeared around them. Their eyes began to sparkle intensely. "My name is Diane, by the way." she said, but her voice was like a snake hissing. Every one took a step back, I could hear Mina scream. I was close to screaming myself, but I was frozen. Who where these people? How could they have anything against Meg? What where they doing to her?

Diane raised her hand, and a black and purple mist formed around it. She muttered a few words under her breath, words that sounded Latin. A ball of mist was suddenly shot at us. I ducked. It just missed me. It hit a building behind me. I watched in horror as the building exploded. I tried to breath. That could have been my face.

The flames around them disappeared. "Diane, we've been summoned back." the bear said. I don't know how they could have possibly been 'summoned.' I hadn't noticed anything that could possibly give them the message. Diane hissed. "But we're just getting started!" she cried, sounding disappointed. The bear just shook his head. "Doesn't matter, we need to go." I could hear her growl under her breath, but then she nodded to him. They then faded into the wind, like ghost.

_Sally acorn pov_

It was about 7 hours after the attack, and we have finally met the other group, and set up camp in the forest. According to Knuckles, they hadn't had any trouble at all. Tails was quick to fill them in on our little adventure. "My Uncle Merlin has told me about a lot of wizards, but none like that!" the young fox said. "Ya thank they where wizards?" Bunnie asked. Tails nodded, "positive. What else could they have been?" I looked over to Elias, who was sitting alone a little bit away.

I walked over opt him. "Hey, you okay?" I asked, sitting down next to him. He looked to me. "I wish I had known that Meg had been taken by those demons." He said. I put a hand on his shoulder, "how could you have? And even if you did, what could you have done any differently than what you're doing now?" he sighed, "i could have been more prepared, we didn't bring anything to defend ourselves from wizards." He then looked at me, suddenly hopeful, "wait, did we?" I shook my head, "sorry, wizard repellent wasn't on my list of things to bring." He looked disappointed. "Poor Meg..." he said quietly. I could see tears in his eyes.

"It's going to be okay. We'll do our best." He looked angry suddenly, "sally, our 'best' isn't going to be good enough!" he went back to being sad, "you don't understand sally. I_ love _her. She's always been there for me. And no matter how chaotic life gets, she always makes it make sense... I can't live without her." He then started to cry. I could do nothing but hug him as he sobbed quietly.

My poor brother. I felt tears form in my eyes as I thought of Meg. My poor sister... I bit my lip to keep from crying. I had to be strong for him.

Thought back to how father had said no to us saving Meg. Was he worried for her? Did he care? If something happened to her, would he even cry for her? If we told him about the wizards, would he do anything? I tried not to think about that.

Soon Elias pulled away. "Thanks Sally." He said quietly. I could only give a supportive smile. "It's going to be okay Eli..." he flinched. I had forgotten, that had been Meg's nickname for him. Then I continued, "sorry, um... Well, maybe they're the only wizards? Maybe he, or she, doesn't have any more?" he shook his head, and said, "it had been that traveler, I just know it."

"How?" I asked. "Remember when he asked about Meg?" he asked, I nodded. Then I said, "Just because he knows Meg, don't mean it's him." But Elias was quick to argue, "I know it was him!" he said. "I just know..." I sighed if that's what he wanted to believe in, alright. We'll see soon, any ways, who it was. We were going to save her, I was sure.

_Sonic the Hedgehog pov_

Getting to sleep was impossible. Elias kept calling out for Meg in his sleep. Sally was rolling around nonstop, and all the others we're either sleep talking or snoring. Finally, I felt sleep come to me.

I had gone to Elias's place, looking for him, but Meg, and their daughter, had been the only ones home. "You look exhausted Sonic, why don't you stay for a bit?" she had asked. I had accepted her offer, thankful for a break. "I have a friend coming over." she explained. I heard a knock on the door.

"That'll be her!" Meg exclaimed. She opened the door. A young light brown cat was there. I have seen her somewhere before. Then I remembered. I had seen her when we had gone to the raiju clan. "I have a song I want to share." she said. I raised an eyebrow. She had been quick to say why she was here. They hadn't even said hello or anything. It was almost unnatural, but Meg accepted it as if it was a normal thing.

Then we were suddenly all sitting on the couch, I looked around, not remembering coming over here.

The girl didn't even say anything, she just started to sing. She had a pretty voice, soft and sweet. She sang slowly.

"_No time to run_

_No time to hide_

_On this dark night of nights._

_A darker presents hiding_

_In the darkness_

_One light shinning bright_

_That must be extinguished_

_Not a brave soul left _

_To save you_

_Save you_

_Not a person, willing to fight_

_For you. _

_Just when you think it's gone_

_You will see _

_What it is I mean"_

I hadn't noticed Meg join in. Has the girl shown her this song before? If so, why was she here? She couldn't have been expecting me... then I saw their eyes. They where sparkling... a lot. Just like Diane's had...

I woke up with a start. I looked around; it had just been a dream. I sighed with relief. Thank god! But then I felt a little nervous again. But that girl... it wasn't like she had been made in my imagination, she was a real person. I had seen her at the raiju clan for real, not just in my dream. Why had I been dreaming about her? It why had she been singing the creepy song? Was she a good singer in real life? I sighed; I had way too many questions. I lay back down. But there was no way I was going back to sleep, no way. Not after that.

**I love writing about creepy dreams! Mostly because it doesn't have to make any sense. Thanks for reading. And please vote on my poll and don't forget to review. I know... I'm pretty demanding. **


	9. new enemies

**I now present... the next chapter! :D**

_Ghost the cat pov_

Waking up to a sunny day was the best. You throw back the curtains and sun pours through your room. Today was _not _one of those days. It was ugly and gray outside. It was as if the sky wasn't blue, but gray. I looked in my mirror for a while. My aura was bouncing happily. The bright yellow glow around me could easily substitute as the sun. My sister was the only one who really knew I could see my aura. I didn't even tell dad. Who was by the way, visiting today.

I made my way quietly through the halls. It was about 5 in the morning, and most people slept in on Saturdays. Especially my sister. I quietly pushed her door opened, and peered in. And I have to admit, I almost screamed when I saw Lightning there too. They had fallen asleep on the couch. She had her arms wrapped around his neck, and her head resting on his shoulder. Her lips were resting on his cheek. Had they been kissing?

I stared for a while. When had this happened? They'd gone from hating to loving? Just like that? How was it possible? I slowly backed out of the room, and ran down the hall. I needed answers.

_Conquering storm pov_

I looked at myself in the mirror for a long time. I was warring the blue dress dad liked me to ware. I twirled a bit, and smoothed it out. I wasn't used to warring dresses. I felt to arms wrap around my waist. "You look beautiful." I heard Lightning whisper in my ear. I shivered, "thank you." I said. I closed my eyes, "it's just... I'm really nervous-" I stopped, footsteps. Lightning clearly heard them too, because he quickly pulled away his arms. It was one of the ninja's. I didn't know his name, but I recognized him. (Do you seriously expect me to remember all of their names when they all look exactly the same?) "Bride of the Conquering Storm, your father has arrived." He announced.

When I was sure he was gone, I quickly grabbed Lightning's arm. "If I pass out sometime through this meeting..." I said, "I'm counting on you to catch me." He laughed a bit. "Why would you pass out?" I didn't let go of his arm, "whenever dad comes, it's always because he has bad news for us." He looked a little worried, "but what could he possibly have to tell us? We already know that we have ninja's going missing. What else could possibly happen?" I looked him in the eyes, "there's always something..." he nods he head. "I understand." He looked to the door, "should we get going?" I nodded. He took a step forward, but I didn't move. I then realized I was still holding on to his arm. "Don't worry." He said, "I'm not going to let you go."

_Scourge the Hedgehog pov_

"Scourge, are you coming or what?" Fiona was already at the door, ready to meet the others. I glared at her for a second, "how's about, 'what'?" she smiled and walked over to where I was sitting. "Come on, Lightning wanted us to join them in meeting Storm's dad." She said, tugging on my arms, trying to get me to stand. When I didn't move, she said, "Do it for Lightning." I sighed and got up. I'd do it for Lightning; I'd even do it for that annoying Ghost, but not for Storm. Storm, who had made a quick recovery, was now back to her bossy old self. It surprised me that lightning was hanging out with her so much. I would think he'd be trying to push her out a window or something. Although... there was that time when he had gone to finish her off. He hadn't done it. He'd said he hadn't been able to get close enough to her. But I knew him better than that. "Come on Scourge! Were already late!" I snapped back to reality and quickly followed Fiona out the door.

_Lightning Lynx pov_

We all sat in a large room with many chairs and couches... anything you could sit on really. Me and Storm sat together on a couch, while the others all sat in chairs. We waited in silence for a long time. Then Predator finally broke the quiet, "so... who watched the hockey game last night?" Before any of us could answer, the huge double doors opened, and an old owl entered. He was followed by about 8 ninja's. He looked to Storm, and smiled. "Ah, my dear daughter..." Storm smiled and gave a nod of her head, "father." He then looked at me, "Lightning, I haven't seen you here for a while." I stared for a second. "I've... well, yeah, haven't seen you for a while either."

Once the owl was seated in front of us, Predator leaned over and whispered to me, "You know him?" I shook my head and whispered back, "I've never seen him before in my life." And it was true. The old owl sighed, "So, Storm, were your sister?"

"I actually don't know father." She said, "She was supposed to be here." the owl nodded, "I'm afraid I have bad news," he said. Storm quietly muttered under her breath, "of course you do." Her father leaned forward, "I am aware that some of your people have been going missing, my dear." She nodded. He then said, "We've found a body." Everyone looked surprised. Storm gasped, and almost fell of the couch. I quickly grabbed her before she hit the ground, and pulled her back up. She grabbed my arm and said quickly, "who was it? Were they dead?" her father looked lost for words, "well... they weren't exactly... she's defiantly alive but... well, how about you see for yourself." I was a bit surprised that they would bring the body with them, instead of taking it strait to a hospital.

Four more ninja's entered, carrying a girl. She was completely paralyzed, it looked like. She was frozen in place, her eyes wide with shock, and glowing blue. Even her hair was stuck in place. "It's Tyra..." Conquering Storm said quietly. She then looked to her father, "but Ghost was with her when she disappeared, she said they couldn't find her body..." the owl shook his head, "we found her up in the mountains." I knew that Storm just couldn't take any more, because she passed out, just like she said she would. At least I caught her.

_Ghost the cat pov_

I was at the very bottom. I was underneath the dungeon. I could feel the heat from the flames of hell underneath me. I came down here often. When I needed to think. It was a room made completely out of rock, with nothing but a stone table. No one else knew about this place. In my hand, I held Storms straw hat. I was lucky enough that she hadn't worn it today. It was exactly what I needed to get the information I wanted.

Her hat went on her head and her memories where in her head. I ran my finger over it. I could feel traces of her memories... the memories I needed to see. I closed my eyes, and focused all my energy on her hat. I knew if anyone where to show up right now, they could be able to see my aura glowing, trying to find these memories. Then, her memories where in my head, I could see her in the garden with Lightning. I saw Lightning with a knife, and her giving herself up to him. I saw him kiss her... I saw her kiss him... then I saw them in a cave. It had been when we had first found her. I saw him kiss her head. Then I saw them in her bedroom. This had been only a day or so ago, she was crying, I heard her say she loved him. I heard him say he loved her. I saw them hug.

My eyes snapped opened. I looked down at my neclas. The purple gem on it was glowing brightly. It was what gave me the ability to look into her memories. It let me do other things too. But me seeing my aura... I did that on my own. Dad had given me the neclas; he had said that one day I might not need it to use my powers.

I looked down at my sister's hat, and thought about what I had just seen. One kiss? It had only taken one kiss for her to fall madly in love with him? It was impossible... there was no way... but what I had just seen was proof that it _was _possible. And I felt a sudden gratitude to Lightning. He had gone to kill her, but had saved her instead. I smiled to myself, thinking of the look on Storms face when it told her I knew all about this.

_Diane the cat pov_

I watched the bride of the raiju clan as she passed out. I watched the Lynx next to her catch her. I watched author owl gasp with surprise. They had no idea we were here. And we weren't. Only our minds where. I quickly brought myself back into my own body, and turned to the others. We were standing on the top of an old, crumbling building. So they had found the body we had left. Things were all going according to my master's strange, useless plan. I turned to Henry and Cody. "Henry, you said our master had summoned us? If so, why did you bring us here?" Henry the bear looked around equally confused as I was. "He did summon us. He brought us here for some reason."

"It doesn't look any different from alder town." I said.

"That's because we never left alder town." Cody said, "Where just in a different part of it." I turned to him. He looked lost here. This was a shame, since he had grown up in alder town. Well, until Eggman had it destroyed. "Look down there." Henry said. I turned and looked to where he was pointing. It was three male lynx. They were from the raiju clan. Clearly they hadn't grown up in the raiju clan, because they were out here, and they weren't legionized. But it didn't matter; our master wanted them all gone. "he must have known they would be out here." I siad.

We quickly climbed down from this building, and walked towards them. "Hey you three!" I called. "What are you guys doing all the way out here?" as we got closer, I noticed that they were pretty young. "We were heading to a party out of town." One of them said, "Our ride broke down though." I hid my hands behind my back so they wouldn't see them glowing blue. "That sucks." Henry said, "how far away is the party?" the boy who had answered earlier said, "a few miles." I smirked, "unfortunately..." I said, "You're not going to be able to make it to the party." They looked confused, and a bit worried. As they should be. "Why?" one of the others asked. I threw my hands in front of me, the blue glow grew brighter, and soon, they all froze. "You have another party to attend." I said, as they fell to the ground. Cody stepped forward. "That one's not completely frozen." He siad, pointing to one of them. The lynx was opening and closing his eyes, and moving his fingers. I shot a blue beam at him, and he stopped moving all together.

"You made sure they could still breathe, right?" Henry asked. I nodded. Our master didn't care if they were dead or alive. But I liked to keep them alive. Even though I wouldn't look it, I wasn't one to kill. Unlike out master.

**I hope you guys like my three new characters, Diane, Henry and Cody. Please review!**


	10. so many lies

**Presenting... chapter 10! **

_Ghost the cat pov _

Where was I? I woke up... on a train. And not a sky train or anything like that, one of those really old fashion trains. Storm and Lightning where sitting across from me. Storm smiled at me, "so you finally decided to wake up?" I looked around, confused. "Why are we here?" Storm's smile faded, "we had to go and save them eventually, Ghost."

I didn't look away from her, "where are we going?" I asked.

Lightning looked at her expectantly, he apparently didn't know either. She finally looked away from the both of us, "there's a forest out west, that's where the note said to go."

I blinked, remembering the weird writing on the note. "You can read that?" she didn't answer, just laughed, "wow, Ghost, you've got allot of questions! Got anymore?" I nodded. "Yes, where are the others?" it was Lightning's turn to answer, "they're somewhere on the train. I'm not sure where, they all kind of wondered off."

I leaned back a bit in my seat. "So, how long should the train ride be?" Storm smiled again. "A few hours." My eyes widened. A few hours? _**Hours?**_ I must have had an obvious look of horror on my face, because Storm smirked. I groaned, "I'm going to die on this train."

Lightning smiled a bit. He had a smile that always made my heart skip a beat. "It'll be fine, Ghost." He said. Storm laughed, "Oh, for Ghost it won't be. She can never stay in one place for too long." I think Lightning felt sorry for me, because he reached forward and gave my hand a squeeze. "Hey, Ghost? Why don't you go see if you can find the others? That should keep you busy for a while." I sighed and nodded. "Fine."

_Lightning Lynx pov_

Once Ghost was gone, Storm wrapped her arms around my neck and leaned into me. "Poor Ghost." She laughed. I smiled and rested my chin on her head, "yeah, but I think she'll live." Storm pressed into me a little more. "Lightning..." she said. I breathed in deeply. Her hair smelled pretty. "Yeah?" I asked. She wrapped her arms around my neck a little tighter, "do you think we're going to be able to save the clan?" she asked. She sounded sad, and tired. She and I had been up late last night planning this rescue mission. We hadn't gotten any sleep.

"Storm," I said, "trust me when I say, I've seen worse. This shouldn't be a problem." She yawned. "That's good." She said, "Because I don't want it to be a problem." Soon she fell asleep. I then felt a little guilty for lying to her.

_Predator hawk pov_

She was a beautiful black cat. She had lovely purple streaks in her hair, and sparkly eyes. And she was sitting right next to me, texting. I had asked to sit with her, saying there were no more spots left. I was a dirty little liar but I didn't care. I gave out a big fake yawn and stretched out my arms. I slowly lowered them, and put the left one around behind her, resting on her shoulder. She raised her gaze from her phone and up to me; she smiled, and continued texting. "Predator!" I jumped and turned to the sound of my name. It was Ghost. "Who's your friend?" the cat asked. I gave Ghost a glare, "This's Ghost. She's my buddy's younger sister."

Ghost sat in front of us. "And who are you?" she asked. The cat smiled, "I'm Diane." She said. I sighed. Diane... what a pretty name. Her cell phone began to ring. "Oh, I've got to take this. Be right back." she said, getting up and waling a few feet away from us. I turned to Ghost, "so, what brings you here?" she smirked, "I got bored. And all Storm and Lightning were going to do was make googly eyes at each other. So I went looking for you guys."

I groaned, "Yeah, great. So... Lighting and Miss Conquering Storm... who would have thought." Ghost sighed. "Storm's lucky. Lightning's so cute and funny..." I raised an eyebrow. "Ooh, looks like somebody has a little crush." I teased. She crossed her arms over her chest, "hey! Just because I think he's cute and funny, doesn't mean I have a crush on him!" before I could respond, we heard something interesting come from Diane into her cell phone. "Yes, it's the raiju clan we're after..." me and Ghost shared a glance of surprise. Ghost pulled out her cell phone and snapped a picture of Diane.

She turned to us. "Why did you take a picture of me?" she demanded. Ghost looked lost for words. "You... um... nice hair!" and then the two of us ran for it.

_Ghost the cat pov_

After the two of us had bolted, Predator had run off to find the others, I had returned to Storm and Lightning. I sighed when I saw them cuddled up together, asleep. I sat down in front of them. I leaned forward and ran my hand through Lightning's hair. "Oh, Storm. You are so lucky." I leaned back again. It had been hard lying to Predator about my feelings for Lightning.

Storm began to stir, and then finally woke up. "Finally." I said. She smiled at me, "what time is it?" she asked. I looked at the clock on my cell phone. I then remembered the picture. I'd tell her after the whole group was back together. "12:43" I said. She looked at Lightning. "Good, we should arrive at our stop soon." She said. I smiled gleefully, "and off this stupid train?" I asked. She laughed, "yes Ghost. And right onto another one." My smile faded, "what? And how long are we going to be on that one. Storm giggled, "a few hours."

**Poor Ghost! Should be some boring train ride. Please review. And make sure you read me new story, 'just another fear.' Thank you!**


	11. dreams and truth

**Here's chapter 11! I apologize for its shortness; I'll try to make the next chapter longer. **

_Megan acorn pov _

"Mrs. Meg? Can you hear me?" I opened my eyes. It was one of the girls that worked for Julius. She was a meek looking echidna girl. I sat up. "I'm sorry, I must have fallen asleep." I said. This was becoming a habit of mine. They fed me so little, and I haven't seen the sun for what seemed like forever. I would fall asleep without realizing it. I would be here, and then I would be somewhere else, in a dream. I was constantly fading in and out of reality.

The girl set down the platter of food she had been holding on the small table. "Don't apologize." She said, "We are the ones who should be apologizing to you." I knew this. I knew this very well. But I had always been taught to use manners since I was a little girl. It just came naturally now. Before anymore words could be said, the girl left.

I stood up and walked over to the table. She had brought me an apple. Just an apple. I sighed but ate it anyways, I was starving. The apple tasted somewhat bitter. But I didn't stop eating it. Once I was finished, I threw to core to the side of the room and lay down on the bed. I could feel myself fading into the dream world.

Soon, I was standing in a forest. It was dark, and I could see tents set up. And then I saw him. "Elias!" I called out to him. He looked up at me surprised. "Meg?"

_Elias acorn pov_

She hovered there like an angle. Her hair blew in a breeze that wasn't there, and I could see through her, like a ghost. I ran up to her. I wrapped my arms around her. I began to cry. She did too. "Oh, Meg! How did you get here?" she looked surprised. "But this is just a dream." She said, "I fell asleep, I know I did..." she started to cry more.

"Meg, this isn't a dream! It can't be. I can feel you. Can you feel me?" she closed her eyes, and pressed her lips to mine. I was too scared to close my eyes; I was scared she would disappear. She pulled away just slightly. "Yes Elias." She said, "I can feel you here." The tears in her eyes began to come impossibly harder. "But I'm not really here." she said, "I know I'm not."

"Please get me out of here Elias!" she sobbed. I pulled her closer to me, "out of where Meg? Where are you?" she just shook her head, "I don't know." Then she started to fade away. "Please!" she called out. Her voice seemed to echo, and seemed distant. "I promise you I will Meg." I said, "Please don't worry, I'll be there as soon as I can."

Then she was gone.

_Meanwhile... elsewhere... _

_Conquering Storm pov _

It was now midnight. I was trying my best to go to sleep, but something about this train made me nervous. Lightning was next to me, and already asleep. Ghost had wondered off a while ago, and I now had no idea where she was. All I could do was hope she was still on the train.

Then she came in. She was warring a black shirt, and purple vest, black boots, a black belt, and black gloves. And she was also warring one of those French hats. Berets. I had no idea where she had gotten to outfit from, but I didn't ask.

"I got big news." She said. I slid past Lightning and walked over to her, "is it good news." She gave me a funny look. "You tell me." She said. Then,

"One of the people that kidnapped the ninja's followed us on the train."

I gasped, "How do you know?"

She stepped in more. "Me and Predator over heard her talking on the phone a few hours ago." I groaned. "And you chose now to tell me?" I asked.

She gave me a guilty look. "We found her on the other train. I didn't think she would follow us onto this one."

I glared at her, "you still should have told me right away." I said. She wasn't listening. Instead, she was fiddling with her cell phone. "Are you listening?"I snapped as quietly as I could, hoping not to wake Lightning. She showed me a picture on her cell, "This's her." She said.

I looked at the picture for a long time. Then I looked at Ghost, "we have to find here." I said. Ghost shook her head. "Not now. Everyone will think it odd if we got up and started searching the train now. They'd expect something. Diane would expect something." She said.

I raised an eyebrow. "Who's Diane?" she rolled her eyes and showed me the picture again. "oh." Was all I said. The girl in the picture did look like a Diane.

Then Ghost said something that surprised me. "Just stay here with your boyfriend and don't worry about it." I jumped a bit, hearing her say that. "Lightning's not my boyfriend. He's anything but my boyfriend." I said quickly. Ghost smirked. "I know he is your boyfriend. Did I forget to tell you? I know all about that night." I stared at here in shock, "how?" was all I could say. She giggled, "an spell dad taught me a while ago."

I looked to Lightning, and then I looked to her again, "does anyone else know?" I asked frantically. She nodded, "just the destructix. I told them right after I found out. But other than that, no one." I didn't know what to say. Sure I was a little mad. I was also relieved and thankful though, that she didn't tell anyone else. I was pretty sure the destructix would share Lightning's secret. It was about time they found out anyways though.

When I didn't say anything, Ghost said, "I wouldn't dare tell dad, or the clan. After what I've seen... you two are perfect for each other." I finally smiled "thank you Ghost."

She laughed, "Don't mention it."

**So what do you think? Please review. And for next chapter, a very special guest shall be appearing. **


	12. the forest

**Now, before we begin chapter 12, I have something very, VERY important to say. Luna the wolf does not belong to me. She belongs to ****NecromancyIsMyGame. ****I repeat, Luna belongs to ****NecromancyIsMyGame.**

_Scourge the Hedgehog pov_

In movies, the Character would get down on their hands and knees and kiss the ground. I was almost thinking of doing that, so freaking thankful for finally being done with trains. But I didn't. I would only look stupid of I did. "Okay, so this is about 'out west' as it gets, Storm, so is this the forest the note was talking about?" I heard Ghost say behind me.

"I'm positive this is it." Conquering Storm replied. We were at a train station in the middle of a forest. With trees the size of small skyscrapers. I looked around. I didn't see a town or anything. I didn't even see a trail or a path to follow. "Why would anyone make a train station out here?" I wondered out loud.

"Some tourists come out here to see the trees." I female voice said. We all turned to face a wolf girl leaning against one of the trees. She was a white wolf. She had on a purple Goth like dress, and fish net gloves. She had black leather boots that had (how epic is this?) spikes on them. Her hair touched the floor, and her bangs covered one eye, and where stripped with black. Her visible eye was red. Her left ear was decorated with four earrings, and she had black wings on her back.

Her tail swished back and forth, and had (also epic.) dog collars on it. I think I was in love. "So what might your name be?" I asked casually, walking over and smoothly put my arm around her shoulders. "Luna." She said simply, shrugging me off and walking forward. "If you think this place is so lame, then what are you doing out here?" she asked, her expression remaining the same.

"We're looking for some... friends." Storm said.

"Yeah, they were kidnapped by this girl and her buddy's!" Ghost said, bringing out that picture on her cell phone of that babe Predator and her and talked to.

Luna took a look at the picture, her face remaining expressionless. "I've seen her before." She said. "I know where your friends are."

For the first time in a while, Conquering Storm looked hopeful. "Can you take us to them?" Luna shrugged, "sure."

Everyone looked excited. I smiled to myself; this mission looked like it would be quicker than I thought.

"I guess we don't need that note after all." Lightning said. Luna turned to him, "what note?" she asked. Storm pulled it out for her to see. Luna looked at it for a while. I couldn't be sure, but I think she was reading it. "You're going to need that." She said.

_Meanwhile... elsewhere_

_Sally Acorn pov _

"You saw her? Are you sure you weren't just dreaming it?" I asked my brother. "No, Meg was here I know she was! And she needs our help, we have to hurry!"

Honestly, I think this whole trip was making Elias a little loony. From stress probably. "We would have to hurry anyways, Elias. But we don't know where to go next after this." I said, keeping my voice low, trying not to wake the others.

Me and Elias sat in front of the fire. It was bright and cold out. "The note said to look for 'a baby sun.' But I don't know what it means."

I sighed, "Okay, how does this sound? When everyone wakes up we'll try and figure it out as a group." Elias nodded. "sure." He said.

Then I added in, "and maybe don't tell the others about seeing Meg..."

"Why, because they'll think I'm crazy?" I didn't know how to answer. That was actually exactly why I didn't want him to tell them about seeing Meg. I tried to think of an answer, "well... well- I just um... n-no..." he laughed, "it's okay, I didn't plan on telling them anyways." I relaxed, "oh, okay. Sorry."

Just then, we heard a rustling sound coming from a nearby bush. "What's that?" the bush started to shake more violently. "Should I get sonic?" Elias asked, making his way to Sonics' tent. I stopped him, "no, we can take care of ourselves."

We waiting, preparing to defend ourselves.

Then out popped... a Chao. "Chao!" it said. "A chao? What's a chao doing out here?" Elias asked. I walked over and scooped it up in my arms, "aw! Are you lost?"

The chao started to wave it's arms, "chao!" I giggled, "You're so cute!"

I let it go. It started to tug on my vest. "I think it wants us to follow it!" Elias said. We followed it down to a murky looking lake. "I didn't know this was here."

Then we saw a group of chao near the water's edge. They were huddled around something. We got closer. It was a girl. She was a young looking purple echidna with strait, hot pink bangs. She was warring a simple blue dress and blue flats. She was soaking wet.

"The chao must have pulled her out from the lake." I said. Elias held on to her wrist, then lowered his head down to her chest, looking for an heartbeat. "She's alive." He said. I looked at her for a while. "We should bring her back to camp I said." then I turned to all the chao. "You where all heroes today! You should all be very proud of yourselves."

We carried the girl back up to camp, the group of chao following close behind.

**So... who is this girl? What was she doing in the lake? I guess you'll just have to wait for chapter 13! AND AGAIN, Luna the wolf belongs to**** NecromancyIsMyGame. ****Not me. **


	13. help

**Look what's finally here!**

_Lightning Lynx pov_

I sighed and sat down next to Ghost. Luna had been leading us through the forest. We'd been walking for hours nonstop in dead silence. Luna had barely said anything the whole time. Ghost looked exhausted. She rested her head on my shoulder. Normally I'd tell her not to, but I was too tired to worry about it right now. "Where did Storm go?" she murmured. I looked around. I didn't see Conquering Storm anywhere. "I don't know." I said.

We continued to sit for a while. "Should we go look for her?" Ghost asked. I sighed, and got up, "don't worry about it, I'll go look."

I headed over to where I had last seen her. "Be careful." I heard a voice say as I pushed aside a few branches. I turned, it had been Luna. "This forest can be really dangerous." She said.

I gave her a nod, "um, yeah. Thanks." I continued on, she followed. I stopped and turned to her. "Are you coming too?" she just stared at me.

"You're going to need help finding your girlfriend." She finally said. I sighed, "How could you tell?"

She shrugged, "I just guessed."

We continued to walk. The only sound in the forest was us calling for Storm.

I started to get worried when we didn't find her. Luna had insisted we take a break. She watched me as I quickly paced back and forth. "Where could she be!" I wondered aloud. "We'd only been there for a minute! How could she disappear so fast?" Luna just shrugged.

"You really care about her, don't you?" she said. I stopped pacing and looked at her surprised, "well, yes. She means the world to me." Her expression didn't change. She said, "what is it about her that's so special? So special that you can't be away from it?" she asked.

I laughed a bit, "That was almost poetic." I said, sitting down on a large rock. "I've loved her for a while." I said, "I had to fight hard for her love in return...really hard. To the point where I had to fight her. When I lost I was exiled. She asked me to return later on... but I failed her again. It was just recently that I suddenly earned her love. I don't know what it was I did, but I did it. And now I don't want to lose it."

I looked up at her, she remained expressionless. It felt weird talking to someone about all this. "That's pretty intense." She said. Then, "we should go find her then."

_Ghost the Cat pov_

It had now been an hour since Lightning and Luna had left to go look for my sister. I was now getting worried. We couldn't go on without Luna, I couldn't go on without Lightning, and my dad would have us all killed if anything happened to Storm.

"Where are they?" Scourge whined for the millionth time. I turned and glared at him, "would you stop it you big baby? We don't need to be reminded that they haven't returned yet."

Then, by some freak miracle, they suddenly came back through the bushes.

I smiled, but it dropped when I saw Storm. She was in Lightning's arms, unconscious. "What happened?" I asked, running up to them. Lightning looked panicked. Even Luna looked a bit worried. "I don't know." He said, "We found her like this a few miles into the forest." I looked at him in shock. "A few _**Miles**_? How did she get all the way over there so fast?" he shrugged, "I don't know!" the others were starting to gather around.

"Was she shut down again?" Fiona asked.

"I don't know!" Lightning repeated, a little annoyed. "We should set up camp." Luna said, "This is a good place for it, and we have to take a good look at her." She gestured to Storm. I sighed, "That sounds like a good idea." I said.

_Meanwhile... elsewhere_

_Elias Acorn pov _

Once everyone was awake, we gathered around the young girl. The chao had left long ago, leaving the girl alone. She had started to wake up, but she wouldn't open her eyes. "We won't hurt you." Sally said, trying to coax her into opening her eyes. "There are too many people." The girl said quietly. So quietly I could barely hear her.

Sally turned to me. "Maybe we should leave you too alone." The others began to leave the tent, but I grabbed sally on her way out, "stay." I said. We sat in front of her. She sat up slowly and opened her eyes. She looked around, and then looked at us.

"Are you okay?" Sally asked. She didn't answer right away.

She leaned forward and put her hand on my arm, then ran her hand through my hair. "Are you real?" she asked us. I gently took her hand off me and placed it on her lap. "Yes... we are..." I said to her slowly. Sally punched my arm gently; "she's not five Elias!" she then turned to the girl. "What's your name sweaty?" she asked. I rolled my eyes, "sally! Whatever happened to 'she's not five.'?"

Sally ignored me.

"I'm Anna-lea" she said. I nodded, "now tell us, Anna-lea, how did you end up in the lake." She looked confused, "the lake?" we nodded, "yes, the lake."

She thought about it for a second, and then said, "They threw me in there..."

"Who?" sally asked.

"My leader... for helping the prisoner." We exchanged glances. "What prisoner?'

She gave a long, sad sounding sigh and said, "Mrs. Meg..." I jumped up, "meg? You know where she is?" she nodded. "How do you know her?" she asked, "she's my wife!" I said, "you have to take us to her!" she shook her head, looking terrified, "no! If I betray them anymore, he will hill more of my people! And if he finds out I'm alive... he'll kill me!"

"We can save your people!" sally said. Anna-lea looked at her suspicious, "how?" Sally didn't know what to say, "I just... we... we will okay! I promise you!" the young echidna looked at us, "promise?" we nodded. "We promise on our lives." I said. She sighed, "I'll think about it." I smiled.

"_We're coming for you Meg..." _ I thought quietly.

**Is Conquering Storm gonna be okay? Guess you'll just have to wait for the next chapter! Please, please, please review!**


	14. tears

**Okay everyone, this is chapter 14. Luna belongs to ****NecromancyIsMyGame.**

_Megan Acorn pov_

I waited. Everything was still. Just an hour ago, all the screaming had stopped. It was as if the world was holding its breath. I hadn't seen anyone yet. It was like I was the only living soul here. Where ever here was. That girl that had helped me seemed too had disappeared, Julius had left me well alone, and it was as if the food appeared by magic.

I would fall asleep, and when I woke up, there it was. I had completely lost count of how many days I've been here. It felt like years. I hadn't seen my reflection in forever... and I was now pretty sure I had gone crazy. Talking to myself, talking to the fruits that arrived, talking to the walls. Talking to imaginary images of Elias and Alexis. Whenever the servants had entered, I was always desperate to start conversation with them. None of them would respond to me.

I finally put my head in my hands and cried. I cried for what felt like hours. The tears kept pouring, and pouring, like a water fall. I sobbed as quietly as I could, not wanting to disturb the silence. I missed Elias. I missed Alexis. I missed Sally and Sonic and Alicia and Max...

I then heard footsteps. I held my breath. It was the first sign of life in hours. "He's gone too far now..." I heard a female voice say. "I've put up with allot of his ridiculous orders, but executing Anna-lea was the last straw." A female cat came into view, along with a young looking male squirrel. The cat smiled at me, "sorry for leaving you darling, we had to go deal with something." I looked away.

"So do you guys work for... Julius?" I asked. When I looked up, I was surprised to see they were already standing in my prison. The cat nodded, "un fortunately." She said. I raised an eyebrow; "if you don't like him so much, why are you working for him?" the cat looked to the squirrel, then turned to me and said. "It's a long story... and a bit complicated." She took a seat next to me on my bed. "You see, Julius's father was our ruler..." I held up a hand, "whoa, whoa, whoa. Before you get into all that... who are you guys exactly?"

She laughed a bit, "Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Diane, and this is Cody." Cody waved. She continued, "Now anyways... his father was the ruler of my people..."

I interrupted again. "And who are your people?" she now looked a little nervous, but then she said. "We are what people call dark wizards." I now felt a little frightened. I had heard allot of bad things about dark wizards. I was surprised I actually believed her, but with all that has happened, I don't think she would make up some lie like that. She seemed to notice my fear. She said, "We are capable of controlling dark magic, but that doesn't mean we're evil. We control good kinds of magic too. Allot of it comes from brain power, but you do have to be born with it."

She pointed to the neclas around Cody's neck, "you see that neclas?" she asked. I nodded. "We wear those when we are learning to use are powers. They've very hard to control and get out of hand easily, especially when we're young. The gems on the neclas keeps them under control while we train. Once we're older and more experienced, we take them off." She said.

"Now back to the story... Julius's father was very powerful. He was very noble as well and loyal to us. He wasn't one to go charging into battle without a plan or no good reason. But, he unfortunately died from sickness. While Julius's father was magic, Julius wasn't. But he was the heir to the throne, so we had to accept him." Diane stopped. She looked rather upset by the story. But she continued. "We hadn't known that our lord had had a son. Someone else had been ruling at the time."

"When Julius came to claim his throne, we had to have him prove himself, since he had no magical ability. But he told us that his father had at one point shown him a thing or two about magical seeds and flowers. The king never shared his secrets about magical herbs with anyone. So, Julius went to your home town, were a rare flower was growing."

"Then... he met you." She looked up at me. I felt a bit of guilt for some reason. She continued, "He fell in love with you, and forgot about his mission completely. When he found out you where pregnant though... he was reminded. So he left, in search of the flower."

I shook my head, "the whole town knew about him leaving me." I said. Diane and Cody nodded, "exactly." They said. "He had to erase himself from your town completely." Cody said. "And a little while after he left you, he found what he was looking for. We cheeked the king's old magic books, and the flower was in it. It was a book the king hadn't shown any one but his own son."

Diane hopped in, "he had control over us then." She said, "So he ordered us to help him fake his death... with magic. And he made sure you and a few others where there to witness it. Just to make sure the news spread throughout the town that he was gone."

They stopped. I waited for the rest of the story to come. It didn't. "And?" I said breathlessly. She shook her head. "That's it." I didn't know what to say. There was nothing to be said.

So I asked. "Before Julius came around, and after his father died... who had been your leader?" neither of them answered right away. Cody gave Diane a worried look. Diane was looking at the floor. "me." She said.

I held back a gasp. How could I have ever married such a horrid man? How could I not have seen it when I first met him? He hid his evil, selfishness well. But there had always been something about Julius... something that had always given me chills.

"So..." I said, "he leaves without a trace... comes back and claims his throne... leaves again to prove himself... marries me... has a baby with me... then gets up and leaves the both of us. Then when he does come back, instead of apologizing, he dies... and steals your crown." Diane nodded. I sighed. "Elias is so much better than that." I said, "Meeting him brought only goodness in my life. He's the best father Alexis could ever ask for." I close my eyes, fighting the tears. I missed him more than anything.

When I opened my eyes, Diane and Cody where gone.

_Meanwhile..._

_In the forest..._

_Ghost the cat pov_

I watched her. That was all I could do. I watched from outside of the tent we had set up. Lightning held Storm in his arms, rocking the two of the back and forth. Her head rested on his shoulder, her eyes remained closed. It was so beautiful I didn't dare disturb it.

Luna had left a little while ago. "Where are you going?" I had asked her. She had turned to me and said, "Just a walk." She didn't seem to show much emotion, but I could tell this whole incident bothered her. It bothered all of us. And it scared me. How someone as strong as my sister, the Bride of Conquering Storm, leader of a whole clan, could suddenly disappear... and be left like...

I closed my eyes, trying not to cry. There was defiantly something weird about this forest. I finally entered the tent, and walked over to where Lightning lynx and Storm sat on the floor of the tent. He didn't seem worried. "Lightning?" I asked, sitting next to him, "is everything okay." He smiled at me. "Its fine Ghost... she's..." I suddenly burst out into tears. I wrapped my arms around him and sobbed. I could hear him saying my name, I didn't respond. "Ghost..." he said, "Ghost please stop crying." I didn't. I couldn't.

Then I heard another voice, a female voice, "Ghost stops crying." I turned, it was Luna. She walked into the tent. "Your sister is fine Ghost." She said. I shook my head, "how could you possibly know?" I said. She pointed to Storm. "Look at her, does she look sick?" I did.

And for the first time, I noticed how peaceful Storm looked. She was breathing, that was good. And the colour had returned to her face that was also good. If anything, it looked like she was asleep. "She's been responding to what I've been saying." Lightning said. I looked at him; "she has?" he nodded. I smiled. "That's good." He wrapped an arm around me. "If you stay for a bit, she might start talking again."

I looked to Luna. "Your sister is fine, Ghost." She repeated. She then left us. "You're a good girl Ghost." I looked down; it had been Storm that time. I smiled. I had no idea what was wrong with her, or what had happened to her, but right now, she was fine. And that's all that mattered.

**Aww... at least that was a sort of happy ending to this chapter. Thanks for reading! Please review! And keep an eye opened for chapter 15!**


	15. the visitor

**Hi everyone. Sorry it took me so long to put this up! But it's here now, so you can start reading. Ready? Set? Go!**

_Conquering Storm pov_

Stupid... just stupid. And strange. I had no strength to even open my eyes. But I could speak. I heard the voices. Those familiar voices that I loved so much. And I responded. At least... I think I did. I opened my mouth, but I couldn't hear the sound come out. But they did, because they answered. Or where they just illusions? Was it just my mind playing tricks on me?

Through all this endless darkness, I couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't. I tried to remember what had happened to me...

I had been in the forest with everyone else. Then, all I did was blink, and they were gone. I was in the forest still, but a different part of it. A brighter part of the forest. The tree's where still impossibly thick and let no sunlight in, but it was still, somehow, bright. And there had been a man there...

It hurt my head trying to remember. I hated this feeling. Being so weak, and hopeless and useless and stupid. It was the same way Lightning made me feel when ever I was around him. Is that why I had hated him for so long? Because he made me feel weak with love?

I remember that one night, when he had shown up again after his second exile. When I had been feeling so empty for some stupid reason. He had been the reason, but I had just hated to admit it. He had shown up, and I had decided to use him again. I was going to let him think he'd get away with killing me, like I would actually let him.

It had been when he was so close to me that I realized that I couldn't do it. I couldn't use him any further than I had. And that had been when the tears had come.

And here he was now, doing nothing but taking care of me...

Love could be so stupid sometimes. But I wouldn't want it any other way.

_Elias Acorn pov_

"Anna-lea?" where are we going?" we followed the young girl through the forest. It was sunnier in this area. And drier than the rest of the damp forest floor. "We're looking for a sunflower." She reminded me. I shared a glance with Sally. Anna-lea had proven to be quite quick. Mentally as well. She had been fast to figure out the riddle, estimate how long it would take, and where to set up camp next.

"A baby sun." She had explained when I had shared the riddle, "would be a sunflower. I was once told that, 'They are the sun's that light up the planet. Not with light, but with beauty.' The sun helps them grow, like it helps any other flower. They are one of the sun's many babies'. But they have its looks. Therefore, they are baby suns."

I wasn't sure how we would know when we found the right sunflower, but she seemed to know. "It should only be a few more minutes." Anna-lea called from ahead. "c'mon! We can do faster than that!" I hear Sonic say. She turned her head and faced him. "I know _you _can. But if you do, you'll draw attention. Besides, you don't even know where it is."

Sonic snorted, "Oh, but I know what I'm looking for! A sunflower, you said so yourself."

"There's allot more than one sunflower out here, Sonic." Knuckles pointed out, "and I have a feeling they don't all have what we're looking for." Anna-lea nodded. "That is correct. The one we're looking for is carefully watched by its mother."

She started to pick up speed. I ran faster to catch up to her, "what do you mean?" I asked. She smiled, "you'll understand when we get there." We continued on. Everyone keeping an eye open. Anna-lea suddenly stopped. We all came to a halt behind her. "Why did we stop?" Rotor asked.

Anna-lea shushed him quiet. She was completely still, eyes wide. Nicole, in her hand held form, started to make a beeping sound. "Sally," she said, "I'm sensing a sudden rise in energy." Sally gave me a worried look. "What do you guys think it is?" Julie-su asked.

Anna-lea shushed again. Then I noticed something strange. All the leaves started to shake and quiver. There was a hissing sound, and a then a sudden flash of color. It all happened within an instant. Anna-lea seemed to come to life. Standing suddenly straighter, her eye's shinning with something in-between excitement and fear.

"That was one of my people." She said, "one of my people... just went by." She turned to me, "I don't think they saw us, but if they do see me with you all, then I believe they will see us as a threat to my old masters mission. I suggest we continue with caution." I gave her a nod.

_Meanwhile..._

_Ghost the cat's pov_

The leaves where shaking. They shook harder by the second and some started to shrivel up and die. I knew this spell. It was a way of transportation. And whoever was using it had found their destination. Here. I ran back into the tent with my sister in it.

Lightning was with her, as was Fiona and Luna. "You guys, I think we have a problem..." I began. Then there was a flash of light. I heard a scream; I think it had been me. Everyone covered their eyes. Conquering Storm suddenly sat up strait, her eyes shot open.

The light disappeared. Storm looked around at us. She looked confused. "What happened..." she slowly stood up, Lightning stood with her. That was when her eyes widened with amazement. "I can move!" I quickly ran out of the tent, looking for whoever that had been. They were gone. The leaves where still.

Luna joined me outside. "I think we should pack up camp." She said. I gave her a nod. "Yeah, I have a feeling we're getting warmer."

**Strange things are happening... how strange. Ghost the cat and Anna-lea are my characters. Luna belongs to**** NecromancyIsMyGame.**


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